The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat. Candlewick Press, MA, 2022.
Middle Grade

Sai is the assistant to the most respected mapmaker in Mangkon: Paiyoon Wongyai. She is lucky to have this job, as she cleverly lied her way into it. She pretends she is just like all the other assistants in Mangkon: someone of respected lineage, soon to turn thirteen and get her first lineal, a small golden gem that represents her proud ancestral line. But she’s a fraud. She has no proud lineage. Her father is a con man and any money she earns goes back to him. What he doesn’t know is that she has been keeping half of it for herself and it is buried where no one will ever find it. Someday, she plans to take that money and go far away from her father and his schemes.

When an amazing opportunity presents itself, Sai thinks this is her chance to finally leave Mangkon. Master Paiyoon has asked her to accompany him on a voyage to map the southern seas. She jumps at the chance. Paiyoon recognizes her skill at mapmaking, but what he doesn’t realize is that she is also an excellent forger—a trait her father took advantage of.

Sai plans to leave Mangkon, but she doesn’t tell Paiyoon that she is planning to take her saved up money along and when they get to a respectable port, she will not return to the ship, but instead, create a new life for herself in a new place. When circumstances interrupt her plans, she must make a decision about who to trust—and who to betray.

This story has much the same themes as Lindsay Eager’s The Patron Thief of Bread. (Watch for a review of that coming up.) A young girl, dependent on unsavory people for her very livelihood, finds herself planning to betray the one person she trusts—and who trusts her.

The Last Mapmaker is a well-crafted novel, with many twists and turns and a sub plot that ties them all together. Such excellent writing, I couldn’t put the book down.